Phoenix man gets 50-year prison sentence for fatal stabbing of estranged, pregnant wife in 2012

PHOENIX (AP) — A Phoenix man has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for the 2012 killing of his estranged, pregnant wife and the couple’s unborn child, authorities said Thursday.

Maricopa County prosecutors said 36-year-old Gilbert Villareal fled to Mexico after the killing, spent three years in a Mexican jail for a different domestic violence incident and wasn’t extradited to Phoenix until September 2021.

He was sentenced earlier this month after pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree murder.

Shelia Lomes, 22, was trying to leave Villareal at the time of her death and living in a west Phoenix apartment with her 2-year-old son.

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Phoenix police said residents at the apartment complex reported hearing a woman screaming and banging on doors for help on the night of March 26, 2012.

Lomes was later found dead in a stairwell after being stabbed 38 times and a knife was located nearby, investigators said.

Lomes’ young son was crying and standing beside his mother’s body when police arrived on the scene.

Authorities said Villareal was arrested and convicted in Mexico for attempted homicide after he stabbed a woman in Cancun in December 2016.

In addition to the long prison term for the 2012 killings, Villareal also received five lifetime injunctions and is not allowed to contact the victim’s family.